


Testing A Hypothesis

by Leonawriter



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Kissing, M/M, Post-Canon, Romantic Fluff, science - supposedly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 03:24:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15654777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: "No, no, I have to do it again. The rules of conducting a proper experiment say that there have to be at least three attempts made.""Ev-""And now that one doesn't count. You laughed.""You're enjoyin' this way too much.”’





	Testing A Hypothesis

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a Tumblr post that went that the scientist character is kissed, and then says 'this requires further experimentation', but then I remoulded it for my own use.

It's hard not to keep looking at Braig's face, the moment he sees the man free. And once the moment has passed, and the danger is not so present, Even just  _can't_ help noticing the way that his heart insists on beating so loudly.

 _Brown_ , he notes again, as Braig begins to say things he really, probably should not, to the Keybearer that he had only just managed to save.

He doesn't need to see the other eye under that patch of his, to know that if it had been healthy and unscarred, then it too would be brown. 

He tells himself that he's only staring to ensure that he hadn't made some sort of mistake previously, that it wasn't a fluke, or some kind of deception, but his eyes wander to the rest of Braig's face and to the way that Braig is moving, and some part of him is also keeping note of _how did we not notice the way that he moved - the way he is now, it's as though he'd been kept captive, and he's only now truly free._

In a sense, Even supposes that this is exactly what has happened.

He waits until Sora and Riku are gone, thanking them for their help, both in bringing a certain idiot back to his senses, and in... other matters. The children nod, smile, wave, and then are off on their way, although with the way things were going he wouldn't be surprised if they weren't going straight to find a certain redhead.

He waits, and gives up entirely on the idea of making physical notes on the thing that he should have been focusing on, because he can't. Focus, that is.

Braig's expression is nigh indecipherable. It makes him nervous, and uneasy. Angled as they were, Even can only see the eyepatch at first, and manoeuvres himself so that the remaining eye is visible again -  _brown, still_ \- only to have an eyebrow get raised at him.

"You can come out and say you don't trust me yet, y'know. As if I'd argue with that - I don't think  _I_ trust me yet."

Even stops, arms crossed and a single finger tapping against his cheek.

"Very well, then," he says. "An experiment. Which you may refuse if you wish."

"Huh? What d'you mean by that?"

Even leans over, hands either side of Braig's face, and their mouths brush together. Slightly. It can hardly even be called a kiss.

They hadn't exactly done anything so openly... explicit, regarding the way that they had felt about each other before - it had all been inconclusive feelings and something he could almost touch every so often, but whenever he had wanted to the most, it had skittered away into thin air as if by fright, and then they had been Nobodies, and in Braig's case, _worse_  - but in another sense, it was as familiar as could be.

"Nobodies may have hearts," he began, distancing himself somewhat, "but they are fragile, brittle things, that-"

"You wanna test that I've got my actual heart back? Is that what this is?"

There is warmth coming to his cheeks, which he assures himself is from frustration and how annoying Braig is - but at the same time, there  _is_ something rather novel about being able to blush properly after all these years.

"If it is, then you did a poor job of working with me, since you hardly-"

"Hey, hey - you think I was, what?  _Unreceptive_ or something?  _As if,_ you just didn't give me a chance to react! Does  _that_ answer that scientific brain of yours?"

Even blinks - first once, and then again, quickly, processing this new information. 

 _Yes,_ he wants to say,  _good. I'm relieved._

Instead, he doesn't.

"No, no, I have to do it again," he hears himself saying. "The rules for conducting a decent experiment state that any experiment must be carried out at least three times in order to have sufficient results to form an analysis out of."

He moves in again before he can talk himself out of it, only to find that Braig's mouth wasn't complying quite as he thinks that it should.

"Ev-"

 _There_ , and yet-

"And now, that one doesn't count. You laughed."

In fact, Braig was  _still_ laughing.

Perhaps if it had been any other time - or at  _any_ time if they had still been Vexen and Xigbar - he would have been irritated and angered by the clear lack of respect for his scientific approach.

But it wasn't any other time, and they were  _Even and Braig_ , and a smile was tugging at his mouth.

Which Braig apparently sees, given the way when the laughter dies out he's still smiling, and - dare Even say it - it's reaching that one brown eye of his, too.

"You're enjoyin' this way too much," he says, and Even's heart is thudding too loudly, which is likely interfering with the experiment since the entire thing was supposed to be about  _Braig_ , not him.

 _Then again, perhaps I am_ , he allows. 

But he doesn't say anything when the next 'experiment' sees Braig meeting him halfway, and the kiss is warm, and gentle, and it's clear that Braig has more experience in this than he does, but although that wasn't what the experiment was about, it was certainly rectifying the matter.

When it stops, Even still feels ghost sensations, and he touches his fingers to his mouth.

"Well? That good enough for you?"

He thinks he knows, now. Because of the way Braig's eye is sparkling, because of the emotions the man is radiating -  _joy and warmth and love and belonging_ \- and the fact that even while he had been in possession of his own heart and Xigbar had still been under Xehanort's control, there hadn't been this sort of...  _connection_ , before.

"Hm," he says. On anyone else he would have called that noise a  _hum_ , but he was a scientist, and scientists of his calibre did not  _hum_. "Perhaps. I still require at least one more attempt in order to feel properly satisfied, however."

It was, he thought somewhat as an aside, the principle of the matter. 

Although he's fairly sure - as certain as he can be - that there isn't much  _scientific_ about the way he feels that he melts somewhat at the contact, and a shared understanding of what it  _meant._

 _You're home now,_ it said.

_Stay._

...

(Ienzo walks in on them. Blinks. Walks back out again, figuring that he can ask Even for the results of what he had been working on, as well as any thoughts he had regarding recent events, later. Just because he had been known as a schemer within the Organisation did not mean, after all, that he was without the means to be able to mind his own business.)


End file.
